My freezer can only hold so many desserts, so sometimes I mix it up and make breads instead. In this particular case, I made something a little different: 17-69: Crispy Cracker Bread.
These are similar to ak-mak or Wasa crispbread, if you’ve tried either of those. I like them topped with some tuna for lunch, so why not make my own?
I have flipped past 14-18: Fried Bananas many times as I’ve gone through these books over the years, and it’s finally time to make it since I live with someone who will actually eat it.
My dad likes fried bananas a lot too–I thought our favorite Chinese food restaurant from when I was a kid served them, but I don’t see them on the menu any longer. I could have sworn I remember him eating them there.
When I searched “fried bananas Chinese restaurant”, it appears it was a 1980s thing in general. Given that both this book and I are from the 1980s, this all makes a lot more sense now.
I’ve fallen behind a little on posting once a week, but I haven’t (yet) fallen behind on making one of these recipes once a week. One step at a time. Next up, I offer you 17-7: Brioches, which is a NEW BOOK recipe.
Simply Delicious claims that the ball on top is common–I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen that. I feel like usually you see brioche buns in more of a standard hamburger bun style, maybe with a slice or two on top. I should have gone with that instead of trying to do the ball on top.
*tap tap* Hello? Is this thing still on?
I’m back, and like most times where I take an extended break from this, it’s because I’ve been up to things in my real life. In this instance, it was losing 100+ pounds, which can really impact the food/cooking blog hobby. This is more than just “cooking/food” and “blogging”, so I’m making yet another attempt to resurrect this beast, now almost 11 years old.
I honestly did not cook a thing for this blog in 2024 (and haven’t yet for 2025), so we’re still working off the 2023 backlog…which is dwindling quick. I’ll remedy that soon. For now, here’s one of the last few left–12-12: Pasta Shells with Tomato Sauce.
This is a recipe I had specifically saved to make with homegrown tomatoes and basil from a summer garden. Tomatoes and basil are two of the few things I’ve actually been able to grow in my garden, so it was worth the wait.
Still working on Thanksgiving 2022 (TGV 2022) entries. I made two desserts that year–one of which was this one, 16-21: Apple Pie with Crumb Topping. Gotta have some type of apple dessert for Thanksgiving. The other was 14-37: Chocolate Soufflé, which I posted right after this one.
FYI, by “crumb topping”, they essentially mean a streusel. Not sure why they didn’t name it that instead, but there you go.
So, it’s probably weird to write about what you made for Thanksgiving when it’s March. It’s probably even weirder to write about what you made for Thanksgiving 2022 in March 2024. But, here we are, and here’s 17-8: Tasty Dinner Rolls. Which I made for Thanksgiving…in 2022 (TGV 2022).
It’s taking me a minute to catch up on some of these, what can I say.
There’s not much more to say about rolls than what they said above. Trust me, I wrote this a few times and then realized each version was essentially a rehash of what they already wrote. Since I’m not trying to hit a word count for a school report here, let’s move on.
It’s been a wet and windy winter here in California, and I’m looking forward to the spring so I can start working in my garden again. In Summer 2022, I grew zucchini and tomatoes, partially in hopes of being able to use them to cover some of the recipes in this book that featured those types of veggies. One of those recipes is this one, 13-4: Zucchini and Tomato Casserole.
I was also able to use some of the fresh herbs from my garden for this recipe as well. If you like these types of recipes (and if you have a garden), 4-1: Eggplant, Tomato, and Onion Bake, 13-10: Zucchini Piccata, and 13-3: Vegetable Deep Dish Pie might be worth checking out.
Ahoy there! Like most people who started a blog a while ago, I’m not as consistent with it as I used to be, but I’ll always come back at some point (usually when work is slow and/or we have a holiday weekend coming up…).
Today’s entry is a good one for all you vegetable gardeners out there–13-3: Vegetable Deep Dish Pie. I was growing zucchini and tomatoes last year (that’s when I actually cooked this), so this one was perfect to use some of those up.
Of course, if you’ve got something else in the ground this year (I’ve got a different type of tomato and some assorted pepper plants this time around), you can vary this to accommodate whatever you’ve got or whatever you like. There’s always farmers’ markets as well!
Today, I have the last unmade Group 01 recipe in my possession to share with you today, 1-23: Pita Pockets. They’re essentially sandwiches with two sorts of filling, both very 1980s/”light”.
One of my favorite restaurants is called Pita Pockets–I’ve been going there since I was in high school (over 20 years…eeek) and it’s one of the places I try to stop at when I find myself back in Southern California. Their pita sandwiches are very different from what we’ve got here today (and theirs are WAY better).
I remember pitas being a big deal in the 1980s-1990s, so it’s not surprising that they were included in this recipe collection. They’re still super popular today, but they’re not as “new” of a concept. Speaking of new, this one came from the NEW book, hence why I wasn’t aware until relatively recently that Simply Delicious even had a pita sandwich recipe.
Summer is slipping away quickly, but if you can still get your hands on some fresh berries, you can give 14-13: Berry Omelette a try. Based on the ingredients and the suggestion to serve it with wine, I think this is more of a “dessert omelette” than a “breakfast omelette”, but you do you.
I suppose there’s lots of dishes on famous breakfast places’ menus that are similar to this in terms of sugar and sweetness–I’m just not much of a “sweets” person for breakfast, especially when eggs are involved. My dad goes even further–he will not eat eggs if there is jam on or near the plate, and vice versa. He would NOT have enjoyed this dish.